A.J. Burnett apologizes to teammates for losing cool, cutting hand in New York Yankees' loss to Rays

New York Yankees' pitcher A.J. Burnett is forced to leave his start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday because he cut his hand after slicing his hand on a door. (Keivom/News)

A.J. Burnett apologized to his teammates Sunday for letting them down when he slammed his fists into a clubhouse door in a fit of anger and cut short his start in Saturday's loss to Tampa Bay.

The Yankee pitcher said his teammates accepted his apology, although he declined to share what he told them.

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"That's between us," Burnett said. "It's over with. It's in the past. I learned from it and hopefully everyone else learned from it too. It was emotions ... so it was good."

Burnett was far from good in the first two innings of Saturday's 10-5 loss to the Rays at the Stadium. That caused him to retreat into the clubhouse, where he slammed both his hands into the clubhouse doors, cutting them. Trying to stay in the game, he lied to Yankee trainers and Joe Girardi, at first telling them he had cut his hands when he braced for a fall as he slipped on the steps.

He faced only two batters in the third inning before Girardi pulled him. After the game, Burnett came clean to Girardi and Brian Cashman, admitting he caused the injury in frustration.

Burnett, 33, said he did not have a chance to address his teammates after Saturday's game. He was the first one in the clubhouse when it opened at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, and waited to face his teammates. He said he met with them to apologize before he went out to test his hands.

Derek Jeter said the incident was not an issue for the team. "It's over with, we're done with it," Jeter said. "The situation is over. He doesn't have to address it anymore. He addressed it (with the media) Sunday. Not everything needs to go through the media."

Girardi did not say if there would be any punitive action taken against Burnett, who is in the second year of a five-year, $82.5 million deal, although he emphasized that players can't let their out-of-check emotions hurt the team.

"My job is to get the most out of our players. How we do things behind closed doors is how I choose to do them with my players, and how I do them in public might be different than what I do behind closed doors," Girardi said. "I've never felt it's advantageous to talk about what we do behind closed doors and what takes place, or to air out a player in public. Players know when they screw up, most of the time. They do. Some managers may choose to do it a different way. But that's the way I think I get the most out of my players, and we deal with situations in house."

Despite Burnett's struggles on the mound this year, Girardi said he was more worried about Burnett's tantrum. The righthander is 7-8 with a 4.99 ERA.

Burnett, whose hands were bandaged Sunday, threw about 10 minutes of soft toss on the field before the game. He declared himself fine after that exercise.